In The Grocery Section, Disappearing Store Brands

[Bruce Wrenn]

Recently (in the last year,) I have noticed more and more "store brands" disappearing from the shelves. The stores where I regularly shop (excluding Aldi's) now only have Campbell's soup. Walmart has a very limited selection of their in house "Great Value" brand soup. Same goes for oatmeal, only Quaker Oats brand now. Canned veggies at Target, as an in house brand, no longer exist. Shortening is now limited to Crisco brand in some stores. By dropping store brands, prices rise, fueling more profits, and adding to inflation. Wegmans still has all their in house branded products, but they aren't close to us. As a side note, local paper recently did a comparison grocery shopping trip. Biggest flaw was they only shopped stores on one street which are very close to both Lidils and Aldis. These prices don't reflect the prices around the area at other stores.

[Paul F Franklin]

Interesting....I have seen just the opposite. I mostly shop at Giant Eagle here in NE Ohio, and many of the "national" brands have been replaced by GE branded versions. A lot of times the store brands are equivalent, but not always. For example, I find the birds eye brand frozen veggies to be way better than the Giant Eagle brand, and the selection of Birds Eye products has been dwindling over the past several years, replaced with GE branded products. Salad dressing and frozen potatoes are other examples that come to mind. I know supply chain issues disrupted the supply of many products, but I noticed this trend well before Covid.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I've noticed this also Bruce. I'm not sure what I'm seeing here ..but my conspiracy instincts tell me that vendors are negotiating to be the exclusive supplier at discount. Walmart announced today they're cutting back, ....lower quarterly earnings...double digit grocery inflation.. consumers are just not spending....there used to be long lines at Chick-fil-A.....working class w/families are pulling back? .....I donno

[Kev Williams]

Supply chain issues. We have a Lucky store whose home-brand is 'Signature', which is good stuff. For the past 3 or 4 months, many items I've bought in the past have been MIA, like their version of Club Crackers, diet cherry cola, and just about everything in frozen EZ foods has been absent. Stouffers is good but twice the money! Same with Walmart, not many if any Great Value salty snacks like corn and potato ships, tortilla chips, pretzels for quite awhile. BUT just yesterday at Lucky they finally had the crackers, and lots more of the Signature soda than before- still no frozen quickie meals but I think it's only a matter of time...

[Frederick Skelly]

Could it be that the suppliers (canneries, etc) can only get limited amounts of "stuff", so they give priority to their brand over packaging it as a store brand? I dont know - just throwing out an idea.

[Scott Clausen]

Yeah, I suspect the store brands are really made by the name brands. When times get tough they may be a much lower priority.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Yeah, I suspect the store brands are really made by the name brands. When times get tough they may be a much lower priority.

Previous life involved a lot of automation projects in food & beverage industries. For a huge variety of products, the economies of scale far outweigh most other considerations. Something like 80% of all refrigerated ready-to-bake biscuits/rolls in the US come from one factory in SW. Another in the SE makes most of the pizza rounds (dough) and bagels -- all they do is change the wrappers. And both are 3rd parties - - not the retailer.

[Curt Harms]

Our default store is Giant, owned by Ahold Delhaize (according to Wikipedia at least). That company also owns Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Hannaford. Their store brand goods have increased in price, national brands appear to have increased quite a bit more. Prices appear to have softened [I]slightly[I] the last time I paid attention. Usually I go straight to what I'm looking for, buy it and leave.

[Jim Becker]

Neither of the two markets that I shop at have had any disappearing store brands.

[Bill Dufour]

I shop at Grocery Outlet which is discount close out store started in Berkeley California right after the war. Only place I have ever seen many east cost brands. Interesting to see USA products labeled in Japanese and Arabic etc.
Problem is you buy one to try it and they will never have more, ever. So if you like it go back the next day and stock up.
Many items are the older bigger sizes pulled off tore shelves to be replaced by smaller packages.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

When I worked at the largest cannery in the world I learned brand names were meaningless. We would label a run of cans until the order was fulfilled. Then switch labels to another brand still pulling from the same warehouse stacks.
Military orders we rubber stamped the contents, no paper labels. Some government orders just required "standard commercial label" so it did not look like welfare food.
Bill D

[Bruce Wrenn]

Kroger (no longer in our market) owns many of their private label producers. Kroger owns several different brands of grocery stores. Here, milk basically comes from either Maryland /Delaware Dairyman Assoc. ( formerly Harris Teeter,) or Pet. By going to web site, "Where does my milk come from," you can figure who produces your milk. Harris Teeter puts up most of Food Lion's dairy products in our area, with either Pet, or Mayola doing the "premium brand." Food Lion stocks two store brand milks (both produced by HT) that sell for different prices. Same milk, just different prices and labels. Tastes the same

[Jim Becker]

Good article on store brands on CNN right now...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/06/business/costco-kirkland-signature-trader-joes-store-brands/index.html

[Bill Dufour]

I remember in the 70's when they brought out generic food. White cardboard with yellow letters names like "cake mix". A little cheaper I guess. I was not buying food then. Lasted. a year or less.
Bill D.
Found this online.

[Bruce Wrenn]

In local Walmart stores, pickles used to be either Mount Olive, or Great Value (also made by Mount Olive.) Suddenly, Vlasic has appeared, replacing the Great Value Brand. Remember that Walmart bankrupted Vlasic several years back, with their cost cutting. Vlasic had spent a fortune on advertising (remember the stork?) showing themselves as a Premium Brand, and Walmart drove the price into the ground to sell it cheaper.

[Jim Koepke]

Supply chain issues. We have a Lucky store whose home-brand is 'Signature', which is good stuff.

I recall years ago Lucky's home-brand was Lady Lee. Then Lucky was bought by Albertsons' (if my memory is working) and their "new management dropped a lot of my favorite products. Then Lucky started losing revenue and the workers or someone else bought the chain back.

It has been a long time since I have been close enough to a Lucky store to shop there.

Currently we shop at Fred Meyer which used to have their own label. Now most of the common canned items have a Kroger label.

Sometimes since the pandemic they do run out of store branded products. They also run out of national brand products. Often there are items with brands not normally seen on the west coast.

They must have some good buyers running around. Often when one product isn't available there will be a substitute brand on the shelf. Sometimes I like the alternate brand only to find it is gone the next time we go shopping.

Canned vegetables seem to be the most likely to disappear and then return.

Some brands like S&W disappear from all the grocer's shelves at the same time and then return.

jtk

[Dave Fritz]

It's been going on in the brewing business for some time. Some craft labels don't have a brewery. https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/octopi-brewing

[Brian Elfert]

Walmart discontinued their Great Value foaming soap refill. At $2.22 it was less than half the cost of the Dial foaming soap refill. It may be that they simply couldn't procure the product as the shelf was empty nearly every time I tried to buy a bottle. Walmart's Great Value potato chips are selling like crazy these days. That section of the chip aisle is often nearly empty. I suspect it is because Frito-Lay has increased their prices pretty significantly over the past two years and shoppers are trying to save money. A party sized bag of Great Value chips is $2.37 compared to $4.98 for the Frito-Lay party size. The only bad part is Walmart has decreased the ounces in their chip bags. They were like 15 ounces and now down to 12.5 ounces or something like that. The Great Value chips are actually pretty good unlike some generic potato chips.

Years ago as a teenager I toured one of the Old Dutch potato chip factories. One thing the tour guide said is that they make generic potato chips, but they use a lower quality potato for those chips.

[Curt Harms]

Walmart discontinued their Great Value foaming soap refill. At $2.22 it was less than half the cost of the Dial foaming soap refill. It may be that they simply couldn't procure the product as the shelf was empty nearly every time I tried to buy a bottle. Walmart's Great Value potato chips are selling like crazy these days. That section of the chip aisle is often nearly empty. I suspect it is because Frito-Lay has increased their prices pretty significantly over the past two years and shoppers are trying to save money. A party sized bag of Great Value chips is $2.37 compared to $4.98 for the Frito-Lay party size. The only bad part is Walmart has decreased the ounces in their chip bags. They were like 15 ounces and now down to 12.5 ounces or something like that. The Great Value chips are actually pretty good unlike some generic potato chips.

Years ago as a teenager I toured one of the Old Dutch potato chip factories. One thing the tour guide said is that they make generic potato chips, but they use a lower quality potato for those chips.

In some cases I think there is a difference between name brand and store brand good. A recent example for us is canned asparagus. The store brand sometimes had hard (old I guess) pieces that the national brand didn't have. Of course that is a sample of perhaps a half dozen cans so by no means conclusive. For the most part I cannot tell the difference between national branded and store branded foods.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Walmart discontinued their Great Value foaming soap refill. At $2.22 it was less than half the cost of the Dial foaming soap.
Make your own refill, using body wash from the Dollar Store. One third body wash, rest water. Been doing that for years. Only time I buy foaming soap is to get a new bottle.

[Rob Luter]

I remember in the 70's when they brought out generic food. White cardboard with yellow letters names like "cake mix". A little cheaper I guess. I was not buying food then. Lasted. a year or less.
Bill D.
Found this online.

I got married as a junior in college and we were as poor as church mice. In 1982 generic mac and cheese was a dime a box. Good times.

[Curt Harms]

Walmart discontinued their Great Value foaming soap refill. At $2.22 it was less than half the cost of the Dial foaming soap refill. It may be that they simply couldn't procure the product as the shelf was empty nearly every time I tried to buy a bottle. Walmart's Great Value potato chips are selling like crazy these days. That section of the chip aisle is often nearly empty. I suspect it is because Frito-Lay has increased their prices pretty significantly over the past two years and shoppers are trying to save money. A party sized bag of Great Value chips is $2.37 compared to $4.98 for the Frito-Lay party size. The only bad part is Walmart has decreased the ounces in their chip bags. They were like 15 ounces and now down to 12.5 ounces or something like that. The Great Value chips are actually pretty good unlike some generic potato chips.

Years ago as a teenager I toured one of the Old Dutch potato chip factories. One thing the tour guide said is that they make generic potato chips, but they use a lower quality potato for those chips.

Keep a watch on Walmart's web site. SWMBO like their coffee creamer stuff. During the height of the 'great disappearance' we thought sure it was discontinued, it was hard to find the name brand stuff for over $1/bottle more. A few weeks ago the store brand stuff reappeared.

[Jim Koepke]

In some cases I think there is a difference between name brand and store brand good.

Often it is from the same cannery. Sometimes there are multiple canneries and some items may be significantly cheaper from a second tier cannery.

Speaking of Generic these were maybe just a joke:

484053

The blocked out line below said, "For cheap #!%&*@$."

jtk

[Lee DeRaud]

I remember in the 70's when they brought out generic food. White cardboard with yellow letters names like "cake mix". A little cheaper I guess. I was not buying food then. Lasted. a year or less.
I recall an Emilio Estevez film, either 'Repo Man' or 'Men At Work', that featured yellow cans with the word "FOOD" in black letters.

[Brian Elfert]

Vick's Nyquil bottles specifically state on them that they do not make store brand versions of their product.

[Bill Dufour]

At the cannery the good brands required that a USDA inspector was on duty at the canning line when their product was canned. AFAIK All Japanese orders were the same way.
There was. a Rabbi who came some days and only when he was there could the food be marked K for kosher. U is a different Kosher mark that he was not affiliated with. I have no idea what he did on his off days. For all I know he came from Rabbies R us. I understand that kosher also means it is approved for Islam. I know they have their own rules but they overlap a lot. For kosher it was automatic approval with no special requirements. No meat or dairy in a fruit cannery, steam clean or boiling water to sanitize between switching products.
Bill D

[Alex Zeller]

I was under the impression that store brands were made by name brand companies that had extra capacity. With the capacity problems we have right now I would suspect that store brands are going to suffer.

[Jim Becker]

I was under the impression that store brands were made by name brand companies that had extra capacity. With the capacity problems we have right now I would suspect that store brands are going to suffer.
That does happen. There are also manufacturers the specialize in "store brands".

Another interesting thing about store brands is that there are "store brands" that are specific to a particular market name/chain and there are "store brands" that are sold to smaller players where funding a truly unique brand might be cost prohibitive. The small local, but upsale, supermarket organization that our older daughter works for carries a "general" store brand for canned and dry goods called "Essentials" that is not specific to their stores. Wegmans, on the other hand, is large enough that they have their own Wegman's branded products available throughout the store. In both cases, however, the products are actually pretty darn good.

[Howard Garner]

I was under the impression that store brands were made by name brand companies that had extra capacity. With the capacity problems we have right now I would suspect that store brands are going to suffer.

True. Many canneries would process product without labels and then just pull from inventory and label them when they got an order.
Same product, many different labels.

Howard Garner

[Mel Fulks]

I don’t buy the “same product” different label thing . My Dad was really thrifty and sometimes tried cheaper brands , but most of the time
he found them lacking . Sure ,the cheaper product might be made in same factory ….but I think that stuff always gets carefully measured
“too much salt,”the overly ripe tomatoes and …perhaps a small bug.

[Jim Koepke]

I was under the impression that store brands were made by name brand companies that had extra capacity.


There are also manufacturers the specialize in "store brands".


Many canneries would process product without labels and then just pull from inventory and label them when they got an order.


Sure ,the cheaper product might be made in same factory ….but I think that stuff always gets carefully measured
“too much salt,”the overly ripe tomatoes and …perhaps a small bug.

All the above is likely correct in its own way.

There used to be more canneries than there are today.

Some national brands have their own canneries and only produce their own products.

Some national brands have canneries that produce their own and also produce products with labels for "house labels" or other regional labels. They may run the same product or the formula may change. After all, if consumers want an economy product why not make it for them and get paid for their capacity.

From my own experience with one product, garbanzo beans, one local retailer has very small beans with more liquid than another retailer with larger beans and not as much water. The national brand has the largest beans with a higher bean to water ration. In this case the retailer with the larger beans also has their own canning facility. I have not purchased garbanzo beans from the third retailer in the area nor do I know if they have them in their own store label. We do not shop there often.

jtk

[Alex Zeller]

I don’t buy the “same product” different label thing . My Dad was really thrifty and sometimes tried cheaper brands , but most of the time
he found them lacking . Sure ,the cheaper product might be made in same factory ….but I think that stuff always gets carefully measured
“too much salt,”the overly ripe tomatoes and …perhaps a small bug.

For things like prepared food they don't use the exact same recipe. When building a plant to make a product you want to have a little excess capacity so if demand is higher than normal or if one machine breaks you can recover. When you reach a point where the demand for your product levels out making extra product to sell as a store brand can be done at a lower price. Your fixed costs, like the price of the machines, doesn't change and you've already built the price to pay off the machines into the price of your product so it's just consumables and the extra labor that get priced in. When it comes to energy some of these machines can't easily be shut down so you have to pay the electricity bill no matter what so making a product with them actually helps pay the bill. Kenmore is an example of this.

I'm sure there's also companies like Jim says. They are in business to make stuff for store brands. The are set up to make adjustments quickly to switch from brand to brand. But their profit margins are most likely much smaller and a supply disruption can impact them easier.

Usually when a name brand has a recall you find out all the store brands they make or their products go into.

[Jim Koepke]

To add on to what Alex posted it is better for a cannery to keep running products to sell at a lower price than to shut down a line and layoff workers even for a short period of time.

jtk

[Dave Lehnert]

I worked in retail for 25 years.
Often we made more profit on the store brand vs the name brand. Just because you pay more dont always = more profit for the store.
Also if you could get customers to purchase and like your store brand,They were locked in to only buy from your store. Name brand is sold by everyone.

[Rollie Meyers]

I shop at Grocery Outlet which is discount close out store started in Berkeley California right after the war. Only place I have ever seen many east cost brands. Interesting to see USA products labeled in Japanese and Arabic etc.
Problem is you buy one to try it and they will never have more, ever. So if you like it go back the next day and stock up.
Many items are the older bigger sizes pulled off tore shelves to be replaced by smaller packages.
Bill D

I call Grocery Outlet the "Used Food Store" :D , have to watch out for expiration dates on their merchandise.

[Jim Koepke]

I call Grocery Outlet the "Used Food Store" :D , have to watch out for expiration dates on their merchandise.

Some friends of mine call it that or "Second Hand Foods."

Sometimes items on or past pull date are heavily discounted. Yogurt and puddings at ridiculously low prices are fine if you can use them up in a few days. Sliced meats and many other foods I tend to look for the pack with the longest out pull date, even when shopping the conventional grocers.

jtk

[Stan Calow]

We've taken to doing most of our shopping at Aldi, where we've found most of their store brands are as good as name brands, with a few exceptions. And they carry a lot of imported European products which have been interesting. I have not noticed shortages, but occasionally a shelf will be sold out, I think because they dont keep large inventories of products in the back room. Manager told me they never know what will be coming in on the weekly truck delivery.

[Adam Grund]

Not a store brand, but I’ve found quite a few flavors of coffeemate liquid creamers to be disappearing right now. I seem to be pretty picky on flavors and brands. I really only like 2 flavors, both of which are severely limited right now.
It helps that I like black coffee too, so there’s always a fall back- but I miss my morning ‘starter’ cup of creamered joe
(I have 1 cup before work of creamer, the rest of the day is black. And on Sunday I treat myself to all my cups having creamer)

[Lee DeRaud]

Not a store brand, but I’ve found quite a few flavors of coffeemate liquid creamers to be disappearing right now. I seem to be pretty picky on flavors and brands. I really only like 2 flavors, both of which are severely limited right now.
That subject probably deserves its own thread. There are a whole bunch of very random but oddly specific things that are either almost unobtainable or disappear for a month only to reappear as inexplicably as they went. My current examples:
Progresso tomato rotini soup
MayBud gouda cheese (the red-wax 'hockey pucks')
Kona coffee (except some obscenely expensive stuff online)
Trader Joes cocktail sauce
Fancy Feast cat food in any flavor not containing salmon
Balance Bars cookie dough flavor
Some odd flavor of Kashi cereal that GF likes and I can never remember the name of
(Hey, I did say "oddly specific"...)

[Curt Harms]

That subject probably deserves its own thread. There are a whole bunch of very random but oddly specific things that are either almost unobtainable or disappear for a month only to reappear as inexplicably as they went. My current examples:
Progresso tomato rotini soup
MayBud gouda cheese (the red-wax 'hockey pucks')
Kona coffee (except some obscenely expensive stuff online)
Trader Joes cocktail sauce
Fancy Feast cat food in any flavor not containing salmon
Balance Bars cookie dough flavor
Some odd flavor of Kashi cereal that GF likes and I can never remember the name of
(Hey, I did say "oddly specific"...)

There was a Fancy Feast cat food drought for a while here - we were getting concerned about what to feed our little fuss-pots because the shelves really were bare but supplies have returned to near normal. There are a couple flavors of Progresso soup we like that we have not seen for any price. OTOH store branded soups have expanded a bit on their flavor selection.

[Lee DeRaud]

There was a Fancy Feast cat food drought for a while here - we were getting concerned about what to feed our little fuss-pots because the shelves really were bare but supplies have returned to near normal.
Admittedly I haven't checked that one lately: we started feeding The Tiny Thing Of Evil all dry food a month or two back.
She seems to like it...or at least doesn't puke it up nearly as often. :)

[Bill Dufour]

I call Grocery Outlet the "Used Food Store" :D , have to watch out for expiration dates on their merchandise.


I call it that as well or the food thrift store.
Bill D

[Brian Elfert]

I call Grocery Outlet the "Used Food Store" :D , have to watch out for expiration dates on their merchandise.

We have Mike's Discount Foods locally. The store closest to me always used to stink like rotten food. They moved to a larger location and that location doesn't smell. Pretty much everything is at, or beyond, the sell by date. Heck, I was there in June or July and they still had Christmas candy and cookies I assume from the 2021 holiday season.

[Bill Dufour]

I found out in the last few months that those bake it yourself biscuits and crescent rolls can be frozen. Just thaw in the fridge overnight before use. Good to know when they hit 25 cents.
Bill D

[Curt Harms]

Admittedly I haven't checked that one lately: we started feeding The Tiny Thing Of Evil all dry food a month or two back.
She seems to like it...or at least doesn't puke it up nearly as often. :)

We have a rescue that has a delicate tummy and will throw up most dry food a few minutes after eating it. We try to restrict him to wet food which he's okay with but it takes vigilance. We recently found a dry cat food intended for delicate tummies. He doesn't seem to throw that up. It's a national brand -- Purina? Might be worth a try.

[Lee DeRaud]

We have a rescue that has a delicate tummy and will throw up most dry food a few minutes after eating it. We try to restrict him to wet food which he's okay with but it takes vigilance. We recently found a dry cat food intended for delicate tummies. He doesn't seem to throw that up. It's a national brand -- Purina? Might be worth a try.
We're using Purina Beyond Simply Grain Free now. She likes it and the supply is reliable. She got about some dry (Purina ProPlan) before, maybe 1/4.

It's not like she was constantly sick, just very random, but it went from once a week or so on the wet/dry mix to maybe only once or twice total on the new dry-only. I suspect it's mostly just because she eats the dry stuff slower.

[Andrew Seemann]

We have Mike's Discount Foods locally. The store closest to me always used to stink like rotten food. They moved to a larger location and that location doesn't smell. Pretty much everything is at, or beyond, the sell by date. Heck, I was there in June or July and they still had Christmas candy and cookies I assume from the 2021 holiday season.

Ah yes, Mike's Discount Food. I remember back when it was Tried and True, Mill End Textiles, and Mike's Discount foods all together in that old former Petco Store (or Petsmart or whatever it was originally) up in Fridley.

The Used Tool Store, Used Fabric Store, and Used Food Store all together in one convenient location. My kids will recall many a Saturday morning going to that Trifecta. Actually all those stores together made a lot of sense; one store for each spouse, plus day-old junk food for the kids.

Mikes was OK usually if you ate it that day. Plus there was Bob's Food Ranch across the street, with food that was in-date:) and they had a pretty good deli.

[Brian Elfert]

The Used Tool Store, Used Fabric Store, and Used Food Store all together in one convenient location. My kids will recall many a Saturday morning going to that Trifecta. Actually all those stores together made a lot of sense; one store for each spouse, plus day-old junk food for the kids.

Mike's Discount Foods took over the Tried and True Tools building after Tried and True went out of business.